Park Lane Hotel

Fred Gedenk, 89, of Streamwood, died Monday in Hoffman Estates Medical Center. Mr. Gedenk retired in 1971 as a stationary engineer at the former Park Lane Hotel, at Surf Street and Sheridan Road, Chicago, after 31 years of service. Mr. Gedenk had previously worked as an engineer at another location for nine years. "He was very hard-working," said his daughter, Jo Perek. "He loved this country, his new country," said his daughter. "He had a great sense of humor and he helped people." Other survivors include two sons,...

Fallen hotel queen Leona Helmsley is back home under palace arrest, as it were, to finish out her sentence for tax evasion. Helmsley, 73, returned to her digs at the Park Lane Hotel on Friday after spending a month at a far less luxurious halfway house, the $54-a-night Le Marquis Hotel, the Daily News reported Thursday. But there'll be no late nights out with her husband, real estate magnate Harry Helmsley. She has to be home each day by 9 p.m., prison officials said. Inmates...

Leona Helmsley, the imperious Manhattan hotel magnate who was derided as "the Queen of Mean" in the late 1980s when she was on trial for income-tax evasion -- and was deemed the woman New Yorkers most love to hate -- died Monday at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 87. Ms. Helmsley, whose $2.5 billion personal fortune last year had her tied as No. 117 on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans, died of heart failure, said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein. Although she denied...

Services for Harry L. Solomon, 91, attorney and real estate developer, will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday in Rosemont Park Cemetery, 6758 W. Addison St. Mr. Solomon, of the North Side, died Wednesday in a Wilmette nursing home. He had been treasurer and director of the Mitchell Manufacturing Co., maker of air conditioners and other appliances, and vice president and treasurer of Pearce Products Co. Mr. Solomon also had been secretary and managing director of the Park Lane Hotel, secretary and director of the Park...

Fred Gedenk, 89, of Streamwood, died Monday in Hoffman Estates Medical Center. Mr. Gedenk retired in 1971 as a stationary engineer at the former Park Lane Hotel, at Surf Street and Sheridan Road, Chicago, after 31 years of service. Mr. Gedenk had previously worked as an engineer at another location for nine years. "He was very hard-working," said his daughter, Jo Perek. "He loved this country, his new country," said his daughter. "He had a great sense of humor and he helped people." Other survivors include two sons,...

Challenger Anatoly Karpov, who destroyed a possible winning position with a careless pawn move, settled for yet another draw Thursday with champion Garri Kasparov in their battle for the world chess title. It was a disappointing end to the fiercest, most chaotic contest of the seven played so far in the 24-game, $915,000 competition. The game had been adjourned Wednesday after Karpov's 41st move. Rather than risk whatever chance there was of a defeat, the challenger offered a draw...

Fallen hotel queen Leona Helmsley is back home under palace arrest, as it were, to finish out her sentence for tax evasion. Helmsley, 73, returned to her digs at the Park Lane Hotel on Friday after spending a month at a far less luxurious halfway house, the $54-a-night Le Marquis Hotel, the Daily News reported Thursday. But there'll be no late nights out with her husband, real estate magnate Harry Helmsley. She has to be home each day by 9 p.m., prison officials said. Inmates...

Leona Helmsley-of the hotel empire, 4-year prison sentence and multibillion-dollar bank balance-is keeping a profile bordering on reclusive these days, waiting out the appeal of her tax-fraud conviction at the luxurious Connecticut mansion used in the case against her. "She's a bit worn down by it all," said Cindy Adams, a close friend and New York Post gossip columnist. "You don`t know which way it (the appeal) is going, and it's just sitting and waiting." One of Helmsley's...

Unlike a lot of unmarried celebs, Mikhail Baryshnikov isn`t dancing to a paternity suite. But he is a dad again. Girlfriend Lisa Rinehart gave birth to a boy last Friday. He also has a daughter, Alexandra, 7, by Jessica Lange. TONING DOWN PATRIOTISM That flap over a noisy American flag in New Mexico has quieted down. Instead of heading for the hoosegow, Lee Bach has switched to a quieter flag. A Navy retiree in Las Cruces who raises the colors daily, Bach had been hauled into court by an irate neighbor...

Unlike a lot of unmarried celebs, Mikhail Baryshnikov isn`t dancing to a paternity suite. But he is a dad again. Girlfriend Lisa Rinehart gave birth to a boy last Friday. He also has a daughter, Alexandra, 7, by Jessica Lange. TONING DOWN PATRIOTISM That flap over a noisy American flag in New Mexico has quieted down. Instead of heading for the hoosegow, Lee Bach has switched to a quieter flag. A Navy retiree in Las Cruces who raises the colors daily, Bach had been hauled into court by an irate neighbor...

Palace Coup By Michael Moss Doubleday, 346 pages, $18.95 The most delicious moment in "Palace Coup," a devastating look into the lives of billionaire hotel magnates Harry and Leona Helmsley, comes early in the book. The year is 1981; the scene is the crowded dining room of the Helmsleys` elegant and expensive Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, where lunchtime diners found themselves unwilling witnesses to the crude behavior of a sixtyish woman sitting with a younger man at a table near...

Palace Coup By Michael Moss Doubleday, 346 pages, $18.95 The most delicious moment in "Palace Coup," a devastating look into the lives of billionaire hotel magnates Harry and Leona Helmsley, comes early in the book. The year is 1981; the scene is the crowded dining room of the Helmsleys` elegant and expensive Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, where lunchtime diners found themselves unwilling witnesses to the crude behavior of a sixtyish woman sitting with a younger man at a table near...

Leona Helmsley-of the hotel empire, 4-year prison sentence and multibillion-dollar bank balance-is keeping a profile bordering on reclusive these days, waiting out the appeal of her tax-fraud conviction at the luxurious Connecticut mansion used in the case against her. "She's a bit worn down by it all," said Cindy Adams, a close friend and New York Post gossip columnist. "You don`t know which way it (the appeal) is going, and it's just sitting and waiting." One of Helmsley's...

The trees along Round Hill Road were still bare last Sunday, but the sun was bright and the breeze was warm. It was a good day for a walk. On the groomed green grounds at No. 521, a man and woman were doing just that. They walked for a long time, slowly, down toward the woods, over toward the caretaker's house, back toward the fountain in front of the mansion, a red-brick Tudor castle that seems indiscreet in a neighborhood where most homes are of white Yankee wood. He put his arm around her for a while.

The trees along Round Hill Road were still bare last Sunday, but the sun was bright and the breeze was warm. It was a good day for a walk. On the groomed green grounds at No. 521, a man and woman were doing just that. They walked for a long time, slowly, down toward the woods, over toward the caretaker's house, back toward the fountain in front of the mansion, a red-brick Tudor castle that seems indiscreet in a neighborhood where most homes are of white Yankee wood. He put his arm around her for a while.

There is a vague feeling in the land that everything has gotten screwy during the last 15 years. Countless books, articles and essays have been written about this-most of them delving into the philosophical and theoretical reasons behind the way things have changed. I`m neither a philosopher nor a theoretician. But here in New York I have come upon an example of just how wacky things have become. It's a small example, but I have a feeling that it means something. Let's go back to 1973 for...